Calcium for Kids

Also published on September 15th, but in the British Medical Journal, was an article indicating that getting children to supplement with calcium made no difference in bone density later in life. In summary, the study concluded, "Given the small treatment effects seen with calcium supplementation, however, it may be appropriate to explore possible alternative nutritional interventions, such as increasing vitamin D concentrations and intake of fruit and vegetables."

While a surprise to the researchers involved, in the study, this is hardly a surprise to those in the alternative health community who understand the true nature of bone density.

Perhaps in the next study, the researchers can analyze the effects of:

Increasing weight bearing exercise. (Lack of sufficient weight bearing exercise accelerates bone loss. Thus, increasing exercise helps reverse it.)
Insufficient boron and vitamin D3 contribute to bone loss.
Insufficient magnesium in the diet is probably more of a factor than insufficient calcium. A study in the Journal of Nutritional Medicine, 1991; 2:165-178, for example, showed that after nine months, women on magnesium supplements increased bone density by some 11%.
Increasing the amount of gamma linolenic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in the diet helps increase bone density.
Avoiding fluoride in your drinking water is vital. Fluoride collects in the bones, and although it "technically" increases bone mass and density, the evidence is very strong that fluoride intake can actually double the incidence of hip fractures.
Using a natural progesterone creme (either men's or women's) can help.

Lifetime high calcium intake increases osteoporotic fracture risk in old age

Thijs R. Klompmaker,
Groove Union Coop. U.A., van Hogendorpstraat 4, 1051 BP Amsterdam, Noord Holland, The Netherlands

Summary

Caloric restriction prolongs life span. Calcium restriction may preserve bone health.

In osteoporosis, bone mineral density (BMD) has significantly decreased, due to a lack of osteoblast bone formation. Traditional osteoporosis prevention is aimed at maximizing BMD, but the lifetime effects of continuously maintaining a high BMD on eventual bone health in old age, have not been studied. Strikingly, in countries with a high mean BMD, fracture rates in the elderly are significantly higher than in countries with a low mean BMD. Studies show that this is not based on genetic differences. Also, in primary hyperparathyroidism, on the brink of osteoporosis, BMD levels may be significantly higher than normal.

Maybe, BMD does not represent long term bone health, but merely momentary bone strength. And maybe, maintaining a high BMD might actually wear out bone health.

Since osteoporosis particularly occurs in the elderly, and because in osteoporotic bone less osteoblasts are available, the underlying process may have to do with ageing of osteoblastic cells.

In healthy subjects, osteoblastic bone cells respond to the influx of calcium by composing a matrix upon which calcium precipitates. In the process of creating this matrix, 50–70% of the involved osteoblasts die. The greater the influx of calcium, the greater osteoblast activity, and the greater osteoblast apoptosis rate. An increased osteoblast apoptosis rate leads to a decrease in the age-related osteoblast replicative capacity (ARORC). In comparison to healthy bone, in osteoporotic bone the decrease in the replicative capacity of osteoblastic cells is greater. Due to the eventual resulting lack of osteoblast activity, micro-fractures cannot be repaired. Continuously maintaining a high BMD comes with continuously high bone remodeling rates, which regionally exhaust the ARORC, eventually leading to irreparable microfractures.

Regarding long time influences on bone health, adequate estrogen levels are known to be protective against osteoporosis. This is generally attributed to its inhibiting influence on osteoclast activity. Instead, its net effects on osteoblast metabolism may be the key to osteoporosis prevention. Adequate estrogen levels inhibit osteoblast activity, calcium apposition and osteoblast apoptosis rate, preserving the ARORC.

Conclusion

Regarding osteoporosis prevention, ARORC better than BMD represents bone health. Regarding ARORC, adequate estrogen levels are protective, opposing the similar effects of hyperparathyroidism and a high calcium diet.

Tests need to be performed in mice to assess the lifetime effects of a high versus a low calcium diet, on eventual bone fracture toughness.

Treatment with 'friendly' bacteria could counter autism in children

Here is another reason to implement probiotics or traditionally prepared fermented foods into you daily diet. The gut literally is the second brain. Total health begins in the gut, folks. If your GI tract isn't functioning very well, it's guaranteed your overall health will be compromised. Although I am not a big fan of nutritional supplementation, probiotics are the exception, and the only supplement I recommend for ALL new patients (unless of course they are already on one). I don't believe they need to stay on it the rest of their lives, but one to three months are usually beneficial until they are able to improve their diets.
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IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

PROBIOTIC bacteria given to autistic children improved their concentration and behaviour so much that medical trials collapsed because parents refused to accept placebos, a scientist revealed yesterday.

The effect of the bacteria was so pronounced that some of the parents taking part in what was supposed to be a blind trial realised their children were taking something other than a placebo.

A number then refused to give their children the placebo when they were due to switch, resulting in the collapse of the trial.

Glenn Gibson, a microbiologist who ran the study of 40 autistic children aged between four and eight, said this meant it was difficult to draw any firm conclusions and he is planning to carry out further research.

However, he said parents had told him the probiotic bacteria was having a beneficial effect, resulting in "better concentration and better behaviour".

One parent said it was "heartbreaking" to have to stop their child taking it.

"It was really challenging for us and the parents. I'd really like to go back to it and do it in a better way, with perhaps more professional help from people who know how to deal with autistic children," said Prof Gibson.

"The trial ultimately failed because of the large number of drop-outs. About half the kids dropped out. Some of the parents worked out their child was on the test and didn't want to move on to the placebo."

Autistic children often suffer bowel conditions and Prof Gibson said a previous study had found high levels of a "bad" bacteria called clostridia in the gut.

The probiotic was then designed to reduce the levels of clostridia and promote "friendly" bacteria instead to see what effect this would have.

Prof Gibson, from Reading University, said the children appeared to show fewer signs of autism when taking the probiotic supplement, which was given in a powder once a day.

"Very subjectively, we asked the parents to fill in diaries about the mood of the children. We got very positive feedback generally," he said.

He said that certain kinds of clostridia produced neuro- toxins, which potentially could be the cause of autism or a contributory factor.

However, he said this was speculation and the apparent improvement could also simply be because the children had felt better.

"If your gut is not behaving yourself, you feel rough," Prof Gibson said.

The first bacteria in the gut is received from the mother during birth and then comes from the outside environment, with diet playing an important role.

"They [infants] may be under medication for an infection and that may have an effect," Prof Gibson said.

"There are all sorts of different factors that may affect that [the bacterial make-up of the gut]."

There was a scare over widely discredited claims that autism was linked to the MMR - measles, mumps and rubella - vaccine given to children.

Asked whether he thought childhood vaccines could have an effect, Prof Gibson said: "No. I don't think there is anything in this MMR business at all."

It is estimated that 535,000 people in the UK have some kind of autism, including a milder form called Asperger's Syndrome.

The condition affects four times as many boys as girls for reasons that are not clearly understood.

A spokeswoman for the National Autistic Society (NAS), the UK's leading charity for people with the condition and their families, said it followed new research into possible treatments with great interest.

She went on: "There is anecdotal evidence that certain vitamins and diets do have benefits for some people with autism. However, a great deal more research remains to be done in this area.

"The NAS looks forward to seeing the results of the further research that Professor Gibson hopes to conduct in the future."

She said that "rigorous scientific evaluation" was necessary to gauge the effects of any new treatment.

A whole range of therapies had been tried in the past, from medication and behavioural therapy to aromatherapy and swimming with dolphins, with varying degrees of success.

Confessions of a Women Doctor: "I was Shocked"

By Dr. Blossom Kunnel

You may be surprised to learn that cholesterol-lowering medications offer women little to no protection from heart attack or heart disease. I know I was. In medical school, my professors spoke of them with such enthusiasm, I was convinced. Then as an emergency room doctor, I continued to believe that statin drugs were the most important medical discovery of the last fifty years.

Then I met Dr Al Sears and he asked me, "Where's the unbiased evidence?" The more I tried to answer that question, the more I realized that what I had been shown as evidence all came from a single source – the drug companies themselves! As I tried to find unbiased proof, all the "evidence" evaporated.

Today I want to share my path of discovery with you and give you safer, more effective ways to improve your cardiovascular health – so you too don't find yourself "duped" like I was.

Searching for the Facts Gives Me the Shock of My Life…

Growing up in India, I was very familiar with our ancient form of natural medicine called Ayurveda. The word Ayurveda means, "the science of life." Practiced for thousands of years, Ayurveda is a complete system of health and healing.

But when I moved to the US at the age of 12, I adopted the American lifestyle and later went to medical school in Philadelphia. After practicing emergency medicine for many years, my connection to Ayurveda felt like just a memory.

By the winter of 2004, my faith in the medical establishment was starting to crack. On my days off, I started going to lectures by leading doctors who integrated both western and alternative medicine. That's when I met Dr. Al Sears. His book, The Doctor's Heart Cure, opened my eyes to the real causes – and treatments – of heart disease.

As my awareness grew, so did my research. I started to uncover studies showing that statin drugs have no real benefit for women. Actually, I didn't have to look very far…

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reported: "For women without cardiovascular disease, lipid [cholesterol] lowering does not affect total or CHD [Coronary Heart Disease] mortality…" 1 In other words, statins don't do anything for otherwise healthy women with high cholesterol.

Later, I discovered the University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative came to the same conclusion, finding that statins have no benefit to women for the prevention of heart disease.2

Even worse, the Honolulu Heart Program study revealed that statins – and the low cholesterol levels they produce – cause problems for the elderly. This particular study is rare, as it's one of the few that measured cholesterol levels over a twenty-year period. Their results showed that those who maintained low cholesterol for twenty years – from middle age into old age – had the highest risk of death.2

But the surprises kept coming. The ASCOTT-LLA study, the largest clinical trial on the effectiveness of statin therapy in women, found that women who took Lipitor (the world's most popular statin) had 10 percent more heart attacks than the women who took the placebo.3

Returning to the Roots of Natural Medicine

After recovering from my initial shock, I went back to my roots. I found that Ayurveda had reliable – and effective – ways of dealing with heart disease. In fact, many were the very same herbs used daily by doctors here in the West.

But I don't limit myself to the Ayurvedic approach. Nutrients like Niacin and CoQ10 are essential. Here's a list of the 3 treatments I use most often for heart health:

Fenugreek: Recent studies show that one gram of fenugreek a day helped to lower blood sugar and improve sensitivity to insulin. It also lowered triglyceride levels and boosted HDL (good cholesterol) 4 My usual recommendation is to start with 500 mg of fenugreek twice a day.

To take fenugreek the traditional Ayurvedic way, put a bunch of the dried leaves in a bowl of water and let it sit overnight. In the morning, strain the mixture and drink as a tea throughout the day.

Niacin: Also known as vitamin B-3, niacin favorably alters both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides and increases HDL. Niacin is integral to the production of fats in the human body. Niacin even plays a role in the production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone – the sex hormones.

The best source of niacin in foods is in nuts and dried beans. In addition, many meats such as liver, poultry and fish contain niacin. You can also take niacin as a supplement. I recommend 500 mg once a day.

CoQ10: There have been at least 100 studies at major universities and hospitals linking CoQ10 deficiency with heart disease. CoQ10 is an enzyme required for deriving energy from oxygen. Without it, organs that need a lot of energy like your heart, brain, kidneys and liver suffer.

Statins actually block the production of CoQ10. This negative effect happens to 100 percent of the patients who take them. Ironically, the depletion of CoQ10 weakens your heart.

In my experience, close to 80 percent of my female patients are deficient in CoQ10. I recommend 100 mg of CoQ10 per day to anyone who is generally healthy. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, gingivitis, age related memory loss, chronic fatigue or are a vegetarian, increase your dose to 200 mg per day.

CoQ10 is available at many nutrition stores but you may have to do some searching to find the adequate therapeutic doses I recommend. Coenzyme Q10 is soluble in oil only. So like vitamin E, you should eat some kind of fat or oil with your CoQ10 or your gut won't absorb it very well.

1. Walsh JME, Pignone M. Drug Treatment of Hyperlipidemia in Women. JAMA. 2004; 291:2243-52.
2. Fallon S. Enig M. Dangers of Statin Drugs. HealthKeepers Magazine. Vol. 8, Issue 2. 2006.
3. Wise Traditions Journal. Vol. 6, Number 3. Fall 2005.
4. Gupta A, Gupta R, et al. Effect of Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek) seeds on glycemic control and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. J Assoc Physicians

Vitamin D call for Asian children

Any discussion on bone health would not be complete without mentioning vitamin D. Here is an article from the BBC which highlights the greater chance of Asian children developing deficiency (probably due to sun phobic women who dont want dark skin). Until more research is available and testing becomes available in singapore I emphasis sensible sun exposure for optimal health and maintaining a healthy spine.
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All Asian children under the age of two should get vitamin D supplements, according to scientists.

A small snapshot study of vitamin D deficiency at the Burnley Health Care Trust revealed Asian children were particularly at risk.

The team said it was more cost effective to provide supplements than to treat problems caused by the deficiency, such as rickets.

The research was published in the Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

The main source of vitamin D is through ultra-violet radiation in sunlight, although it can also be found in certain foods.

It is crucial for the absorption of calcium, which is key in the formation of healthy bones. Deficiencies can lead to rickets, poor tooth formation, stunted growth and general ill health.

People with darker skin are at greater risk of vitamin D deficiencies because increased pigmentation reduces the capacity of the skin to manufacture the vitamin from sunlight.

More cost effective

Scientists from Burnley General Hospital analysed the medical records of children suffering from vitamin D deficiency between 1994 and 2005 at the Burnley Health Care Trust in north-west England.

Between 1994 and 2005 they found 14 cases, thirteen of which were in Asian children.

According to Dr Christos Zipitis, lead author of the study and a paediatrician, the rate of deficiency in Asian children was one in 117 compared with one in 923 children overall.

He said as well as having increased skin pigmentation, Asian children often had diets low in vitamin D.

The team then analysed the cost of treatment for these 14 patients, covering the cost of medication, hospital care and follow up appointments. It averaged up to £2,505 per patient.

They then looked at the cost of vitamin D supplementation needed to prevent one case of deficiency in the whole population of children, based on their figures.

They did so based on guidelines by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA), which recommend varying levels of vitamin D over the first two years of a child's life. They found it be £47,534 per child.

But when they looked at the cost of preventing one case of deficiency in an Asian child, it came to £2,410.

Supplement use

Dr Zipitis said: "If you just treat the high risk population, which in our trust is the Asian population, it is cheaper to supplement everybody than to treat the consequences."

He said that in other trusts, children of Afro-Caribbean or African origin would be at high risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Dr Mary Hannon-Fletcher, from the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, said: "The use of supplements must always be backed up by rigorous research and evidence that this will not result in toxicity.

"There are always problems with inter-individual differences in uptake, bioavailability and dietary and lifestyle factors that need to be taken into account, especially in this young population."

Statins increase risk of diabetes

There is a huge push to get all diabetics on a statin for cholesterol control, whether its needed or not.

Please remember that adequate magnesium will help and acts as a natural statin in our bodies and without these negative effects found with manufactured statin drugs. Magnesium is known to lower blood sugars, and prevent insulin resistance. It can prevent and delay type 2 diabetes...we just saw some of the benefits that Betty experienced using magnesium oil in baths, gradually lowering her elevated blood sugars over a few days time.

Here's a new study on Lipitor, showing it to increase blood sugars. Statins such as Lipitor are widely prescribed by MDs, for non diabetics as well, and it doesn't seem a huge leap to expect that their blood sugars may also elevate.

Some believe statins should be used by everyone, even when cholesterol levels are within normal limits. There's even been talk of putting it in the water supply, and including it in superpills (a combination drug).

Many people have suffered neuropathies believed to be related to statins....and there is even a petition requesting this be looked into. http://www.petitiononline.com/Statins/petition.html

Below is the new information in the news this week:

Statins Can Deteriorate Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes
on Tuesday, August 22 @ 15:51:12 CDT

The use of atorvastatin (Lipitor) showed a deterioration of glycemic control in type 2’s.
Atheroscler Thromb. 2006 Apr;13(2):95-100.

http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4054

Calcium: Important Update

As most would be aware, I have been highly recommending Magesium for all scoliosis patients with an elimination or drastic reduction of all calcium supplements. This advise will correct the imbalance that is usually associated from a society that drinks too much milk and puts too much emphasis on Calcium. Excess calcium causes calcific deposits, wrinkle, arthritis, most degereative and age related changes.

Below is the updated advice on Calcium by Dr Andrew Weil.

New: My Latest Calcium Recommendations

Due to growing evidence that high doses of calcium do not prevent bone fractures and may even encourage the growth of prostate cancer cells, I recently reduced my supplemental calcium recommendation. I now advise that women take no more than 700 mg of supplemental calcium a day to get a total of 1,000 to 1,200 mg of calcium from food and supplements, and I now recommend that men do not take any supplemental calcium.

I’ve based my new recommendations mainly on research conducted by Walter Willett, MD, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Diane Feskanich, ScD, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. These scientists and their colleagues looked extensively at clinical trials and analyzed data from two large observational studies: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) of more than 70,000 women, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) of 55,000 men.

They concluded that calcium promoted bone health in the clinical trials, which lasted only two to three years, but not in the long-term observational studies. “This may be because the small part of the bone, called the remodeling space, sponges up calcium in the initial year following a boost in intake, but then fills up and additional calcium no longer adds much benefit,” says Dr. Willett. In several clinical trials, most of the reduction in bone loss with calcium supplementation took place only during the first year or two; after this, no lasting benefits were seen in bone mineral density.

This short-term effect may help explain the observational studies. When researchers looked at the relationship between postmenopausal women’s hip fracture risk, calcium and vitamin D intake, and milk consumption in the NHS, they observed a significantly lower risk of hip fracture among women with higher vitamin D intakes, but calcium and milk intake didn’t appear to be associated with hip fracture risk (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2003).

Allergies and the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’

In our need for cleanliness we have inavertantly created greater chronic health problems through an undeveloped immune system. This is another reason why I recommend everyone drinks kefir everyday to help restore bacterial to our bodies and strengthen our immune system. As this article highlights... even the bad bugs can help us.

Sometime in the 1990s, researchers developed the “hygiene hypothesis” as a way of explaining the steady increase in chronic respiratory illnesses over the preceding 15 years. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Milwaukee, Wis., the number of Americans with asthma increased by 75 percent during that period and the number of those with some kind of allergy doubled. The hygiene theory points to the American obsession with cleanliness as the correlating factor.

Advocates of the hypothesis note that when a baby’s developing immune system doesn’t encounter enough or the right kind of bacteria, viruses, or parasites, the body’s lymphocytes get out of whack and start treating harmless things like dust or pollen as major invaders. Critics of the idea quickly point out exceptions—like the high incidence of asthma in inner city children—but two new studies enhance the hypothesis’ viability. The first, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, found that sewer rats actually have stronger immune responses and higher levels of disease-fighting antibodies than rats raised in the dirt- and disease-free environment of the research lab.

The second involves whipworms. A Michigan State University team found that swallowing the eggs of this threadlike parasite helps relieve the intestinal ulcers and severe bouts of diarrhea that characterize inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Since IBD occurs more frequently in industrialized nations, these new findings also fit the hygiene hypothesis, which says that occasional infections actually bolster the immune system, and that parasites have historically played an important part in our immune development.

Magnesium: Acid Base balance

This research highlights the need for keeping proper acid base balance in the body, and helps to explain one of the reasons why magnesium is more deficient in diabetics (and others) who suffer from acidosis more often when blood sugars are high.
Avoiding acidosis:
1) Eating according to your metabolic type... Vegetables can be acidic or alkaline depending on the persons metabolic type.
2) Avoid all simple sugars.

2006 American Society for Nutrition J. Nutr. 136:2374-2377, September 2006
Nutritional Epidemiology
Acid-Base Status Affects Renal Magnesium Losses in Healthy, Elderly
Persons1 Ragnar Rylander2,*, Thomas Remer3, Shoma Berkemeyer3 and Jürgen Vormann4

Magnesium and calcium deficiency in humans is related to a number of pathological phenomena such as arrhythmia, osteoporosis, migraine, and fatal myocardial infarction. Clinically established metabolic acidosis induces renal losses of calcium. In normal subjects, even moderate increases in net endogenous acid production (NEAP) impair
renal calcium reabsorption but no information is available whether this also influences renal magnesium handling. The aim of the study was to examine the relation between NEAP and renal magnesium excretion in healthy, free-living, elderly subjects. The subjects (age 64 ± 4.7 y, n = 85) were randomly selected from the population register in Gothenburg (Sweden). Magnesium, calcium, and potassium were measured in 24-h urine samples and NEAP was quantified as renal net acid excretion (NAE). NAE was positively correlated with excretions of magnesium (R2 = 0.27, P < 0.0001) and calcium (R2 =
0.30, P < 0.0001) but not potassium. When 24-h urinary magnesium excretion was adjusted for 24-h urinary potassium excretion, a biomarker for dietary potassium intake, the association between magnesium excretion and NAE remained significant (R2 = 0.21, P < 0.0001). The significant association between potassium-adjusted magnesiuria and NAE suggests that the acid-base status affects renal magnesium losses, irrespectively of magnesium intake. Magnesium deficiency could thus, apart from an insufficient intake, partly be caused by the acid load in the body.

Dr Andrew Weil on Kefir

Today's Question
Crazy about Kefir?

I have been drinking kefir occasionally for a few years, but now I am interested in making my own so I can drink it regularly. Is kefir as healthy as they say? What are you thoughts on using it everyday?

-- Brian Thomas

Today's Answer (Published 08/18/2006)
Kefir, an ancient drink from the Caucasus Mountains that resembles liquid yogurt, is made by adding a live culture - called kefir "grains" - from a previous batch of kefir to room-temperature milk (usually from a cow, goat or sheep, though soymilk can be used). The cultures are a combination of bacteria and yeasts, usually lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces kefir.

Traditional kefir is tart - even sour - and contains a bit of carbonation and some alcohol from the fermentation. However, much of the kefir sold commercially in the United States is neither carbonated nor alcoholic.

I think kefir is great. It is a probiotic, which means it contains "friendly" bacteria that can stabilize the digestive tract, and when it is well made, it is delicious. Kefir also provides you with calcium and protein, and may have some additional benefits for the immune system. You can certainly use it every day. A small study published in the May, 2003, Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that drinking kefir eliminated - or, at least, dramatically reduced - symptoms of lactose intolerance in 15 adult participants. Researchers at Ohio State
University tested plain kefir, raspberry-flavored kefir, plain yogurt, raspberry-flavored yogurt and two-percent milk in this group after a 12-hour fast. The participants recorded any symptoms of lactose intolerance after consuming each food. They reported few or no symptoms after ingesting both types of kefir and both types of yogurt.

The researcher who conducted the study, Steven Hertzler, an assistant professor of medical dietetics at Ohio State University, said that kefir might be a better option than yogurt for some lactose-intolerant people because it contains a wider array of microorganisms believed to break down lactose in the digestive tract. In addition, Hertzler suggested that kefir microorganisms may be able to colonize the intestines and protect against disease-causing bacteria.

The one caution I would give you is that commercial kefir often is overly sweetened and full of additives. Read labels carefully. I would buy plain varieties and add your own sweetener and flavoring if you like. And making your own kefir isn't difficult, with starter kits widely available. You'll have to experiment a bit to produce kefir that bests suits your taste. In general, the longer the fermentation time, the more sour the finished product. Enjoy!

Andrew Weil, M.D.